President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai signed into law Afghanistan's new constitution on Monday, more than three weeks after the document was approved by a grand assembly, officially enshrining a presidential system of government for the country.
The president, surrounded by members of his cabinet, the former king Mohammad Zahir Shah and members of the international community, signed a decree, which promulgated the constitution at a brief ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul.
After signing the decree, Karzai turned to those around him and said "congratulations".
"I declare and enact the new constitution which was unanimously adopted in 12 chapters and 162 articles by the historic Loya Jirga (grand assembly) convened in of Kabul between December 13, 2003 and January 4, 2004," the decree states.
It said the constitution should guide Afghanistan in "observing the provisions of the sacred religion of Islam, to strong national unity, the realisation of democratic goals, building a civil society and ... ensure peace, equity and brotherhood within the Afghan nation."
On Saturday, Karzai said that he was waiting for linguistic and grammatical errors to be removed from the 162-article document first before signing it.
The constitution provides a strong presidential system of government for the war-wracked country, backed up by a bicameral parliament. It also states that Afghanistan is an Islamic nation and that "no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam."
It paves the way for Afghanistan's first democratic elections and states that men and women have equal rights and duties and that a certain proportion of parliamentary representatives must be women, significant admissions in conservative Afghanistan.
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